ADDRESS 

OF 



D. F. HOUSTON 

Secretary of Agriculture 



BEFORE THE 



Association of American Agricultural Colleges 
and Experiment Stations 




^ (^- 1^ 



AUDITORIUM HOTEL 
Chicago, 111., November 12, 1919 




UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

CIRCULAR 147 

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY 



Was'.iinglon, D. C. 



November, 1919 



VMSHINQTON : GOVERNMENT PRIKTIKQ OFFICE : 1911 



"O^pfi 



ADDRESS OF D. F. HOUSTON, 

SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 



BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES AND EX- 
PERIMENT STATIONS, AUDITORIUM HOTEL, CHICAGO, ILL., NOVEMBER 12, 1919. 



ONE YEAR AGO yesterday word came across the ocean that th.o 
armistice had been signed and that hostilities had ceased. 
Throughout the Nation celebrations were quickly organized and the 
people rejoiced. And they had good reason for rejoicing: for the 
strong enemy of free peoples had been crushed and the wholesale 
destruction of human beings had ended. Doubtless few of them 
dreamed that at the end of a year the Nation still would not have 
peace. To-day there is for us and other peoples neither peace nor 
v.ar; and there is not only the unrest, which is the natural heritage 
of war, but also the uncertainty and added difficulties which exist 
because of the failure finall}^ to conclude peace. Few students of 
hi.story imagined when the armistice was signed that this Nation 
or the world would quickly return to a stable condition. History 
clearl}^ teaches the impossibility of quick adjustments after great 
wars. The Napoleonic war was followed by a long period of tur- 
moil; and the difficulties for half a generation after our Civil War 
are fresh in the minds of many of us. Still there were few of us 
who did not anticipate an earlier completion of the formal peace 
processes and a prompt exclusive devotion of governments to tho 
work of liquidating the war. 

WORLD IN STATE OF DOUBT. 

It is not my purpose or desire to attempt to assign responsibility, 
for the delay in making peace; but I may note, as we all must, the 
results of the delay. The whole world remains in a state of doubt 
and hesitation. The people of the new nations particularly can not 
make their plans with any confidence, because some of them do not 
yet know what their alignments will be or what kind of peace will 
exist when it does come. With the Central Powers our commercial 
relations have not yet been reestablished. In them we ha^■e no con- 
sular or trade agents, while some of the Allies, having ratified the 
treaty of peace, are laying their plans to occupy the commercial 

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14S96S°— 19 



fields of Geriuanv and Austria and a.ro alroad}' cna'aa'ed in trade 
Vi'itli tlu^ni. The difficulties of our situation are daily brought home 
to i)cople throughout the Union, and ]>articulaily to exeoutive and 
legislative officers; and the handicaj)s avc sliall suffer bj' additional 
delay are obvious. Vv'c are unable io determine the scale of our 
Military and Naval Establishments, intelligently to make a financial 
budget, or to plan our scheme of taxatic^n. If the League of Na- 
tions is to be a rindity there is pros])ec.: of very consideralile dis- 
armament, with a consequent reduction in expenditure and taxation. 
It is imperative that this shoidd occur. Tlie war has sho^^ n '-learly 
v.hat military })re])aration means and ^vhat sort of armament we 
shall be (M)mpelled to maintain if a competiti^'e military regime is 
to persist.- Where, before the war, ou.v Jklilitai-y Establishment en- 
tailed a burden of two or three hundred m.illioriS of dollars, it will 
hereafter, on a competitive basis, involve expenditures of not less 
than a billion and a half. Further eriibarras-ment results from the 
fact that there is no way of determining the diiralion of emergency 
legislation. There are statutes which expire with the ]n'o('lamation 
of ])eace. This may happen in tv;o vreeks or two yetirs, and, there- 
fore, business men and administr:di\"e (yfficers do not k'now how to 
make their plans and form judgmeiits. Production programs of all 
sorts are fundamentally affected and disturbed conclitions furnish 
agitators fav(»rablo oppru'tunil ies for condu.cting thcii vicious ])i'opa- 
ganda. Obviously, the existing state of things malces for ineifective- 
ness of national life in every direction and the persistence and per- 
haps extension of present luirdens and saci'ifices. 

UNREST LESSENING PRODUCTION. 

The present incbistrial unre-t. in })art a heritage of the war. is ag- 
gravated by (»ur state of uncertainty. It is Ji'.ounting higlier and is 
crippling production at the very time when a paramomit need of 
the Nation and of the world is a scaling down of prices and a re- 
duction of the cost of living which, in (he main, can result only from 
increased production and thrift. Practices aie resoi'ted to which 
greatly increase the already heavy burdens of in(histry and thwart 
the efforts of private and governmental agencies to furnish relief. 
Increased wages are demanded to meet tlie high cost of living and 
higher prices -mv asked to cover increased cost; and so the Nation 
faces a process of pyramiding, which, if not checked, v^'ill lead to 
industrial collapse and untold suffering. I do not undertake to pass 
judgment on the strike as a weapon for labor in normal times. 
But one tiling is certain. In existing circumstances, it can only 
check production, lessen the volume of national wealth to be dis- 
tributed, and increase the cost of living, not only for labor but for all 
the other citizens of the Pepublic. Another thing is certain. It is 



not a remedy to which hibor ought to be forced to resort. It is a 
crude way of settling a dispute, as war is; and it is not creditable to 
us as a Nation that we can not find another and better way — that avc 
can not establish conditions which will make a strilvc a thing of the 
past. All the people of the Nation are bearing the burden imposed 
by reduced production and no one class in society can hope to escape 
it as the expense of all other classes. "We must unite, not divide, 
to correct the evil." This Nation needs now to feel the patriotic 
impulse quite as much as it did during the wnr. If the preservation 
of the liberties of the Nation was worth fighting for surely the 
opportunity victory has brought to pursue unhindered the tasks of 
improvement should call out our best impulses. Peace has her need 
for patriotism no less intense than war ; and the trouble seems to be 
with us, as Lloyd George said of the English people, that we have 
demobilized patriotism too soon. 

EFFECT ON FARMERS. 

Present conditions bear with peculiar weight on tlie farmers of 
the Nation. It is not improbable that natural economic forces operat- 
ing during the ensuing 12 months will produce a slow decline in prices 
and that, in spite of anything that can be done, the reduction may 
be more marked in the case of agricultural products. This may 
result from the fact that agricultural production during the war 
was not only maintained but extended, while industrial production 
for nonmilitary purposes decreased in some directions; that Europe 
may recover more rapidly agriculturally than industrially; and 
that the opening up of shipping will bring back into the markets 
of Europe the products of more distant nations. It is reasonably 
clear that Europe will be hard pressed for food supplies, at least 
until after the liarvest of 1920. Russia is likely to be a negligible 
factor so far as exports of foodstuffs to other nations are concerned. 
European countries in the aggregate probably will not produce this 
year more than 70 per cent of their prewar normal output. Appar- 
ently Poland, Austria proper, and Italy will be in especially difficult 
circumstances; and all the central and western European nations 
Avill be compelled to import large quantities of cereals and meat 
products. The quantities they can secure will be limited, in part, by 
their impaired ability to pay for them. They are seeking credits 
not only for food supplies but also for raw materials for their 
industries. Obviously, they can devote only a part of the credits 
they receive to the purchase of foods. Unquestionably, they will 
attempt to obtain these in the cheapest markets. Before the Euro- 
pean war Great Britain, the principal food-importing nation, secured 
most of lier beef from her colonies and from Argentina. In 1913 her 
imports of beef from Argentina and Australia amounted to over 



8,500,000,000 pouiuls. They decreased during the war until in 1918 
she was receiving from these countries only 2,555,000,000 pounds, 
while, on the other hand, her imports from the United States rose in 
the same period from 1,462,000 pounds in 1913 to 3,583,000,000 in 
1918. Shipping is opening up again and there are indications that 
the United Kingdom is once more turning to her former sources for 
supplies of beef. The exports of beef (including oleo oils) from this 
country to the United Kingdom during July of this year aggregated 
5,300,000 pounds as against 72,000,000 in June, 1918, while the exports 
of pork (including lard) during July of this year amounted to 
154,000,000 pounds as against 220,000,000 in June, 1919. Although 
the United States will be called upon to furnish Europe large supplies 
of food, certainly until after the next harvest, it appears that there 
is already a tendency for the exports of certain products to decline; 
and it may be, if Europe has good seasons next year, that our exports 
may retui-n toward the preAvar normal. We shall soon be concerned 
with the planting program of our farmers for the spring of 1920. In 
view of all the circumstances, it seems that it would be wise for the 
same suggestion to be made to them as was made in the early part of 
the year, namely, that they should practice safe farming, returning 
to a balanced agriculture and to the operations best suited to their 
own individual and community conditions. 

While economic forces may be the main factors in reducing the 
prices of farm conunodities, they v;ill not be obvious to many people ; 
and there will be a disposition to attribute any drop in prices to the 
action of Government or of private agencies. The impression seems 
to have got abroad that the Government was concerning itself only 
with the jn'ices of foodstuffs and that the farmer would be hit first 
and exclusively. Tliat such was the Government's intention is, of 
course, far from the truth. Its object was primarily to prevent 
profiteering in all the necessaries of life and it is as much concerned 
in preventing profiteering in manufactured products as in food 
products. The Attorney General, in seeking power to deal with the 
probknu, asked Congress to extend the control act to cover manu- 
factured necessaries, which was done, and has instructed his agents 
to give special attention to dealers in such commodities. 

EVERY PRODUCING CLASS MUST DO ITS PART. 

The trouble is that the press in discussing the cost of living 
thinks almost exclusively in terms of food and limits its statements 
principally to such products. The difficulty has lieen increased by 
the fact that not a few business men have asserted that the cost 
of living can not be reduced unless the prices of foodstuffs fall, and 
that the prices of foodstuffs will not fall unless there is greatly in- 
creased production. Obviously, it is useless and unjust to ask farmers 



to increase production, buying what they have to buy at the present 
scale of prices, with the intimation that, at the end of the crop 
year, their products will fall in price and that then the manufac- 
turers will consider what they can do in respect to their products. 
Certainly it is desirable to return to a stable condition at as early a 
date as possible. Every class of producers in the countrj' must do 
its part and manufacturers should be willing to make at least a 
contemporaneous reduction in the prices of their products. 

SOME rilEREQUISITES FOR RUKAE C0NTENT:MEXT. 

Many people ignorant of rural problems talk and write as if farm- 
ing were not a business and as if food production did not involve the 
expenditure of capital and labor. The demand of the city is for 
cheap food and that more abundantly. There are those who talk 
as if there could be an unlimited number of farmers. This may have 
been true when the farm was self-sufficient and produced little or 
no surplus. But, obviously, to-day there should be, and. in the long- 
run, there will tend to be, enough farmers to produce their pro- 
portion of what the world will buy at prices wdiich make productioji 
profitable. Certainly farming must pa}-. There will be farmers 
enough if the business of farming is made profitable and if rural 
life is made attractive and healthful. The farmer, as well as the 
industrial worker, is entitled to a living w^age and to a reasonable 
profit on his investment. He is entitled also to satisfactory educa- 
tional opportunities for his children and to the benefits of modern 
medical science and sanitation. When these requirements are met 
there will be no difficult}^ in retaining in the rural districts a sufficient 
number of contented and efficient people. What we need is not 
back-to-the-land propaganda, but an acceleration of the work for the 
improvement of the countryside which will render the abandonment 
of farms unnecessary and the expansion of farming inevitable. I 
am sure that the farmers of the Nation are perfectly willing to do 
their part in producing and saving if all other producers in the 
Nation will set about doing their part. 

NEED FOR FRESH RURAL SURVEY. 

Present conditions, and particularly present states of mind, in- 
dicate the need of a fresh, broad survey of rural life, of its special 
problems, and of its relationships. It should be viewed as a whole. 
A comprehensive flexible program should be developed for the 
guidance of the different agencies, each of which has its peculiar 
functions and responsibilities. Furthermore, the principles and pur- 
poses governing agricultural life and agencies should be set forth 
for the education of the American public, particularly the urban 
part of it. The Nation as a whole needs a fuller appreciation 



of its Itasic iudii.stry. nml a more definite sense of direction of its 
efforts to foster it, Many ao-encies are now following more or less 
Avell-defined, lieli)ful plans of their own devising, bnt these are at 
best piecemeal, and there is confnsion of leadership and objectives. 
A program made l)y any one element wonld be partial and unsatis- 
factory. We shonld have a meeting of minds of all those directly 
concerned, of farmers, of agricultural leaders, and of business men. 
This need was ably presented by your president, Dean Davenport, 
and by Dr. Butterfield, and I need not enter into details. My pres- 
ent suggestion is that there should first be held a relatively large con- 
ference, and that the matter of setting np a small temporary or 
permanent commission be then determined. 

The calling of such a conference is very definitely in the Presi- 
dent's mind. In connection with the recent industrial conference, 
he authorized me to make it known that he intended to ask for 
another meeting which would deal especially with problems which 
more intimately concern farmers. The industrial conference was 
expected to consider only the problem of the relation of employers 
to eniplovees in manufacturing, and he invoked the aid of six 
agricultiu-al representatives to assist in its solution, deeming this 
number adetiuate in the eircumstanros. The conference now sug- 
gested would, of coui'se, call for a very generous representation of 
farmei's and agricuKural leaders. 

SERVICE OF COLLEGES. 

I keenly recognize tlud the agrieultural colleges of the States, like 
the Federal department itself, are now confronted with unusual 
difficulties :ind are laboring under serious eml)arrassments; and yet 
in the midst oi tlicse they are called u])on to render even more urgent 
service. 1 lia\e long had an exalted opinion of the value of these 
institutions to our democracy. Recent events have caused me even 
more highly to prize them and more clearly to recognize their need. 
They have made it singularly clear that agricultural institutions 
must omit no stcj) to add, through research and experiment, to the 
sum of our scientific knowledge. In some instances, available infor- 
mation has proAcn to be fragaientary. In others there were no re- 
sults at hand on which to base intelligent conclusions. Up to a 
short time ago investigation had seemed to run ahead of facilities 
for conveying information: but with the improvement in publication 
activity, the expansion of the agricultural press, and particularly 
the firm establishment of the extension service, the danger is now 
rather that our teaching may outrun the accunmlated stock of knoAvl- 
edge and become sterile. Of course, neither the problems of produc- 
tion nor those of distribution have been solved. As economic con- 
ditions change :ind become more complex new and vital research 



9 

problems >Yil] arise. The Nation sliouUl have a weil-balancej pro- 
gram not only of instruction but also of researeli. To this end, it must 
secure and retain the services of its most talented scientific and 
practical men ; and this means something in terms of dollars and cents. 
It means that we must not only place tin- investigator on a highei' 
financial plane but also give those who have talent funds and facilities 
in generous measure. It is increasingly clear that, in all positions of 
responsibility, the State and the Nation must be prepared to secure 
and retain men of the requisite training and experience and to make 
the conditions sufficiently attractive. Our democracy is to-day 
threatened with inefficient service l^ecause of its failure to provide 
a reasonably decent compensation for men of capacity charged with 
large responsibilities, and our democratic arrangements may either 
break down or result in commonplace ])ei'formance. if reasonable re- 
quirements are not met. 

SAFEGUARDING DEMOCRACY. 

But the agricultural colleges of the country owe a duty outside 
their technical field, outside their fields of investigation and tech- 
nical echication. Thev are charged, as I conceive it. with scmiethino- 
more even than the task of improving farming. Present conditions 
point to the need of leadership along broader lines in rural as 
well as in urban districts. We can not too frequently refresh the 
minds of all our people as to the nature and meaning of democracy, 
of our governmental institutions and ideals; and there is in rural 
districts, as well as in urban, a considerable l)ody of people, many 
of them recently come among us, unactiuainted with our institutions 
and purposes, familiar only with conditions radically different from 
ours, who certainlv need a sympathetic induction into American 
life and the most energetic assistance that all our educational in- 
stitutions can furnish. 

Some of them need more than this. They need to be taught the 
very elements of democracy and the meaning of the rule of law. 
The people of this country are committed to the ride of the ma- 
jority and to the rule of law. There is no good cause which can not 
get a hearing from our people. It is the privilege of men Avho 
advocate it to persuade the majority that they are right. If they 
can, they can secure what they seek at the polls. If they can not, 
they must abide by the will of the majority or suffer the penalty. 
Not to do so is treason to the majority. The majority Avill not 
tolerate any effort of a misguided minority to impose its will by 
violence. It does not intend to live under the spell of threats and 
menaces. And the average American will not be patient with those 
who say that if they do not like a law they may not obey it. 



10 

NO CLASS RULE. 

Nor will the Amcric;iu people hav& any patience with those who 
advocate the dominance oi* rnle (»f any chiss. Democracy arose on 
tlie downfall of a class. Our forefathers did not want class rule. 
They deposed such autoci-ats as the Stuarts, the Bourbons, and their 
adherents, wlio souo;ht to tyrannize over the masses. There is no 
one class in society that has sense enough to rule all the others. Any 
one class would make a sad failure of o-overning this Nation or any 
other. History teaches that lesson very plainly. I am in favor of 
improving our (Tovernment Avhenever the need for improvement is 
demonstrated, but not of upsetting it. There will and must be 
changes, but these changes must be discussed and made according to 
the processes of law and of American life and institutions, and n.ot 
according to the whim of some class. The American people are still 
connnitted to the theory of represcnti'.tive government, of government 
made u[) of representati\'es of all tlie people. I do not believe they 
will substitute for it re[n-esentation of groups of interests, with a 
struggle on the part of each group to dominate; and I think that they 
will not accei:)t the theory that employees of the Government, munici- 
pal. State, oi- Fedei-al, may strike to secure what they wish. I am 
unable to see how a group of individuals can claim the privilege of 
striking against the body politic without ai'rogating to itself the 
position of supremacy over the people. It is time for very plain 
speaking and for the inculcation of some very commonplace truths. 
We are all in sympathy with rational proposals for the improve- 
ment of the masses of the less fortunate people of the Nation and 
of the world, but this improvement must come by orderly processes. 
And we must recognize that, after all, the real progress of humanity 
is slow. In times like these, progress is rapid, but not so rapid as 
it seems to some. During great upheavals, people have not infre- 
quently thoujdit that they have got very much further than they 
actually have. Tlu'y have got more out of the experience than there 
was in it. Franco did this at the end of the eighteenth century, when 
she enthroned reason, and thought that she had got, in a few years, to 
a point she has not yet reached. Eussia is now making the same 
blunder. 

STANDARDS OF CONDUCT. 

What we need is cool judgment, open minds, regard for facts, and 
courage to follow conclusions based on tliem. These characteristics 
the institutions of learning of the Nation are peculiarl}' fitted to in- 
culcate. Let us have debate, criticism, and progress by all means, but 
let us have constructive criticism, and let us have progressives wdio 
know whore they arc headed and why. Let us demand that our pub- 



11 



lie men aiul the agencies whose task it is to inform and lead public 
opinion, shall show a conscientious regard for facts and giA'c the 
people helpful interpretations of them. Tliis is no time for mere 
partisan tactics, for personal abuse, and for misrepresentation of 
men, policies, and institutions. !Mcn of any party in responsible 
positions, or of the press, who make stiitements which they know are 
not true — or. wliat is (piite as pernicious and more conunou. state- 
ments they do not kr^ow to bo true — only conti'ibute to the spirit of 
unrest and irritation and tend in no sn.iall mea-ure to furnish justili- 
cation to ignorant or evil-minded persons among us for their acts 
of violence and crime. They assume a gra.vo risic and will not es •ai)e 
their share of responsibility for what may happen. 

I confidently call upon the universities and colleges here i'epre>enteil 
more energetically to lead the educational forces of the Nation in the 
patriotic task of keeping before the minds of all our i)e()ple the mean- 
ing and value of our institutions, of Americanizing our po})ulation 
of recent foreign extraction, of strengthening our us(d'ul nalioiuil 
liabits of ihought. and of holding our pul)licists and public men to 
high standards of utterance and action. 

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